6.3.Â Productivity

When it comes to productivity, users often look for an
office suite or an easy-to-use word processor. While some
desktop environments like
KDE provide an office suite, there
is no default productivity package. Several office suites and
graphical word processors are available for FreeBSD, regardless
of the installed window manager.

This section demonstrates how to install the following
popular productivity software and indicates if the application
is resource-heavy, takes time to compile from ports, or has any
major dependencies.

Application Name

Resources Needed

Installation from Ports

Major Dependencies

Calligra

light

heavy

KDE

AbiWord

light

light

Gtk+ or
GNOME

The Gimp

light

heavy

Gtk+

Apache
OpenOffice

heavy

huge

JDK™ and
Mozilla

LibreOffice

somewhat heavy

huge

Gtk+, or
KDE/
GNOME, or
JDK™

6.3.1.Â Calligra

The KDE desktop environment includes
an office suite which can be installed separately from
KDE.
Calligra includes standard
components that can be found in other office suites.
Words is the word processor,
Sheets is the spreadsheet program,
Stage manages slide presentations,
and Karbon is used to draw
graphical documents.

In FreeBSD, editors/calligra can be
installed as a package or a port. To install the
package:

#pkg install calligra

If the package is not available, use the Ports Collection
instead:

#cd /usr/ports/editors/calligra#make install clean

6.3.2.Â AbiWord

AbiWord is a free word
processing program similar in look and feel to
MicrosoftÂ® Word. It is fast,
contains many features, and is user-friendly.

AbiWord can import or export
many file formats, including some proprietary ones like
MicrosoftÂ® .rtf.

To install the AbiWord
package:

#pkg install abiword

If the package is not available, it can be compiled from
the Ports Collection:

#cd /usr/ports/editors/abiword#make install clean

6.3.3.Â The GIMP

For image authoring or picture retouching,
The GIMP provides a sophisticated
image manipulation program. It can be used as a simple paint
program or as a quality photo retouching suite. It supports a
large number of plugins and features a scripting interface.
The GIMP can read and write a wide
range of file formats and supports interfaces with scanners
and tablets.

6.3.4.Â Apache OpenOffice

Apache OpenOffice is an open
source office suite which is developed under the wing of the
Apache Software Foundation's Incubator. It includes all of
the applications found in a complete office productivity
suite: a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager,
and drawing program. Its user interface is similar to other
office suites, and it can import and export in various popular
file formats. It is available in a number of different
languages and internationalization has been extended to
interfaces, spell checkers, and dictionaries.

The word processor of Apache
OpenOffice uses a native XML file format for
increased portability and flexibility. The spreadsheet
program features a macro language which can be interfaced
with external databases. Apache
OpenOffice is stable and runs natively on
WindowsÂ®, Solaris™, LinuxÂ®, FreeBSD, and MacÂ OSÂ®Â X.
More information about Apache
OpenOffice can be found at openoffice.org.
For FreeBSD specific information refer to porting.openoffice.org/freebsd/.

To install the Apache
OpenOffice package:

#pkg install apache-openoffice

Once the package is installed, type the following command
to launch Apache OpenOffice:

%openoffice-X.Y.Z

where X.Y.Z is the version
number of the installed version of Apache
OpenOffice. The first time
Apache OpenOffice launches, some
questions will be asked and a
.openoffice.org folder will be created in
the user's home directory.

If the desired Apache
OpenOffice package is not available, compiling
the port is still an option. However, this requires a lot of
disk space and a fairly long time to compile:

#cd /usr/ports/editors/openoffice-4#make install clean

Note:

To build a localized version, replace the previous
command with:

#make LOCALIZED_LANG=your_language install clean

Replace
your_language with the correct
language ISO-code. A list of supported language codes is
available in
files/Makefile.localized, located in
the port's directory.

6.3.5.Â LibreOffice

LibreOffice is a free software
office suite developed by documentfoundation.org.
It is compatible with other major office suites and available
on a variety of platforms. It is a rebranded fork of
Apache OpenOffice and includes
applications found in a complete office productivity suite:
a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, drawing
program, database management program, and a tool for creating
and editing mathematical formulÃ¦. It is available in
a number of different languages and internationalization has
been extended to interfaces, spell checkers, and
dictionaries.

The word processor of
LibreOffice uses a native XML file
format for increased portability and flexibility. The
spreadsheet program features a macro language which can be
interfaced with external databases.
LibreOffice is stable and runs
natively on WindowsÂ®, LinuxÂ®, FreeBSD, and MacÂ OSÂ®Â X.
More information about LibreOffice
can be found at libreoffice.org.

To install the English version of the
LibreOffice package:

#pkg install libreoffice

The editors category (freebsd.org/ports/editors.html)
of the Ports Collection contains several localizations for
LibreOffice. When installing a
localized package, replace libreoffice
with the name of the localized package.

Once the package is installed, type the following command
to run LibreOffice:

%libreoffice

During the first launch, some questions will be asked
and a .libreoffice folder will be created
in the user's home directory.

If the desired LibreOffice
package is not available, compiling the port is still an
option. However, this requires a lot of disk space and a
fairly long time to compile. This example compiles the
English version:

#cd /usr/ports/editors/libreoffice#make install clean

Note:

To build a localized version,
cd into the port directory of
the desired language. Supported languages can be found
in the editors category (freebsd.org/ports/editors.html)
of the Ports Collection.